Hey, let's watch Regis Philbin tell a fib.
In 1967, ABC decided to compete with Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. They put The Joey Bishop Show — ninety minutes of pretty much the same format — on opposite him. Since Johnny had a sidekick/announcer, Joey had to have a sidekick/announcer. It was said that Joey personally made the selection of Regis to be his Ed McMahon. Prior to that, Philbin had worked various jobs in mostly-local but some national television. He did a syndicated talk show that never caught on and soon after it went off, he was hired by Joey.
Mr. Bishop's show barely made a dent in Carson's dominance of the time slot and went off after 33 months of finishing usually in second place and sometimes in third in what was then a three-network race. In the clip below, you'll hear Regis attribute its failure to NBC having more stations…and while I'm sure that's true, I would think the main reason was that it wasn't a very good show.
Bishop was not very warm or pleasant and occasionally, his jokes about others, especially his sidekick, erred on the side of mean. Via his "Rat Pack" connection, he could occasionally get a Dean Martin or Sammy Davis to come on as a guest — though never Sinatra. Joey was said to be quite bothered that his old pal Frank declined all invites.
And he had the problem that most talk shows have when they're not in first place: The best guests have something to plug and they and their publicists want it plugged on the show with the most viewers. Johnny got the big names and then when CBS added The Merv Griffin Show to the late night lineup, Merv got second-pick of guests and Joey had to settle for Jack Carter and below.
If anyone involved was not responsible for the failure of Bishop's show, it was Regis. He simply didn't contribute enough to have been a factor. But at the same time, he didn't contribute anything that would make you think he'd ever have a successful career, let alone become one of the most "seen" human beings ever on television. He did though figure into the most memorable occurrence on the Bishop show and it led to some of the few nights they outrated Johnny.
On the show for July 12, 1968, Regis made an announcement early in the proceedings. He said, to the genuine shock of the studio audience and the professed surprise of Joey Bishop, that he was quitting. Then and there. He said he'd heard too many rumbles about how the network thought he was a big reason the show wasn't making it and he didn't want to be where he wasn't wanted…and he certainly didn't want to hold back his loyal friend Joey. And with that, he walked off the stage and out of the studio.
In several places on the 'net where this is mentioned, it says this was during a live broadcast but I don't think Bishop's show was ever live. In fact, I remember always thinking that one of the things that did hold it back was that while Johnny's show was done "day-and-date" in New York (meaning they taped it earlier the day it aired), Joey was out here in Hollywood on a one-day delay. The show they taped on Tuesday didn't air until Wednesday…so things couldn't be as topical. In any case, it was definitely on the news on that July 12th that you could tune in that night's show and see Regis make his startling announcement. I know because I tuned in to see it.
There was much written in the press and the network put out statements that absolutely no one there had wanted to get rid of Regis. A few days later, it was announced that everything had been worked out and he returned, somewhat and somehow triumphant, to the show. I, of course, also watched the night he returned. Even at the less-cynical age of fifteen, all I could think of was that it was a clumsily-planned-and-executed publicity stunt.
If it wasn't, I thought, Philbin did something very unprofessional. If you want to quit a TV show, you don't do it on the TV show. You have your agent call and try to negotiate you out of your contract. It would also have been a rotten thing to do to his friend Joey unless Joey was in on it. Also, 7/12/68 was the first night of one of Johnny's occasional visits to L.A. and his show that evening had a killer, star-packed guest list. That was the night Regis just "happened" to pick to quit in the most attention-getting way possible.
For a while after, Regis insisted it was all for real and that Bishop was completely unaware it was going to happen. Eventually though, both men began admitting it was a planned stunt. In 1995, in the first of several autobiographies he put out during his life, Regis (or his ghost-writer, Bill Zehme) wrote of rumors that folks at the network thought the show might be better off without Mr. Philbin. Before each taping, he and Joey would go for a walk around the streets of Hollywood and chat…
Early that week during our afternoon walk, I brought up all these rumors. "Do you think it's me?" I asked Joey. "Should I quit? If you think I'm hurting the show, I'll go." I reminded Joey that he had stuck his neck out for me and the last thing I wanted to do was be a noose around that neck. Joey gave me a surprised look. "No, I don't think it's you," he said evenly. But I saw a little light go off in his eyes. Coincidence or not, we both knew that the following week, Johnny Carson would be bringing The Tonight Show out to NBC's facilities in Burbank, our own backyard. Whenever Carson came west, it was a big event and his ratings soared.
Joey, for his part, hated network politics and didn't much like his ABC bosses, especially the ones who wanted my blood. So he said to me, "I'll tell you a way to get back at them. Why don't you — only if you feel like it — walk off one night? Walk off right on the air like Jack Paar used to do. You'll show them." Then he said, "Just know that if you walk, I'll make sure you come back."
Then he goes on about how they discussed it and adds, "More than anything, Joey was envisioning the publicity value of a televised resignation. After all, Carson was coming west and we were sitting ducks for a ratings massacre." He finally told Bishop, "What the hell, I'll go for it" and a few days later — timed so it would air opposite Carson's opening show from Burbank, he did it.
That was how he described it in his 1995 book, I'm Only One Man — now outta-print (I believe) but I have a copy. On the tour to promote it, he talked a lot about how he and Joey had planned it and how it provoked an outcry from fans, demands that he come back and a joyous, highly-rated return. Okay, fine. Far more dishonest things have occurred on television. If you turn on any news channel right now, you can probably watch a couple.
But on November 1, 2006, Philbin sat for a long interview with the TV Academy folks and here is how he described it eleven years later…
I don't get it. Why confess in a book and all over national television that it was a prearranged stunt and then later try to spin it as all your idea? And before you wonder: Joey Bishop didn't pass away until 2007.